Failed N.Ireland car bombing highlights terror threat

BELFAST (AFP)  A massive car bomb that failed to explode properly was designed to cause widespread destruction in Belfast, police said Sunday, underscoring the threat to Northern Ireland's fragile peace.

The car, containing a 400-pound (180-kilogramme) device, crashed through barriers outside a police headquarters in Belfast late on Saturday and partially exploded, police said.

Elsewhere, police exchanged shots with paramilitaries in a border village. Three people have been arrested in Northern Ireland and one across the border in the Republic of Ireland, police said.

The attacks come at a delicate time for Northern Ireland's peace process.
The main Protestant and Catholic parties, who share power in the province's devolved assembly, are at loggerheads over when policing and justice responsibility should be transferred from London.

The threat from dissident paramilitary groups opposed to the peace process is at its highest for six years, according to the watchdog monitoring their activities, which called the situation "very serious".